The United States is drawing up plans for bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a 'last resort' to block Teheran from developing nuclear weapons, a media report said on Sunday.
Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
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"The war strategists are reporting to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, as the US is updating plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear bomb ambitions," the report said
Tehran has repeatedly said that it is developing only a civilian energy programme.
"This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," a senior Pentagon adviser told the newspaper, adding, "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months."
The prospect of military action could put Washington at odds with Britain, which fears that an attack will spark violence across the Middle East, reprisals in the West and may not cripple Tehran's nuclear programme.
However, the steady flow of disclosures about Iran's secret nuclear operations and the virulent anti-Israeli threats of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have prompted the fresh assessment of military options by Washington.
The most likely strategy would involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers, each armed with up to 40,000lb of precision weapons, including the latest bunker-busting devices.
The Bush administration recently announced plans to add conventional ballistic missiles to the armory of its nuclear Trident submarines within the next two years. If ready in time, they will also form part of the plan of attack, the report said.
Tehran has dispersed its nuclear plants, burying some deep underground, and has recently increased its air defenses, but Pentagon planners believe that the raids could seriously cripple Iran's nuclear programme.
Iran was reported to the United Nations Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency last weekend for its banned nuclear activities. Teheran reacted by announcing that it would resume full-scale uranium enrichment - producing material that can arm nuclear devices.
The White House has said that it wanted a diplomatic solution to the standoff, but President George W Bush has refused to rule out military action and reaffirmed last weekend that Iran's nuclear ambitions 'will not be tolerated.'
Sen John McCain, the Republican front-winner to succeed Bush in 2008, has advocated military strikes as a last resort. "There is only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option and that is a nuclear-armed Iran," he said recently. However, Bush will not want to be seen as leaving the White House having allowed Iran to go nuclear.
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